The Host Prequel
by Apollothesungod
Summary: This takes place a few days before the Souls began to take over the world. It is an overview of the things that take place before the book.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

"Hey Jamie, what kind of meat do you want on you sandwich," Melanie Stryder yelled through the bright white, kitchen wall.

There was a second's pause. "Do we have roast beef left?" The muffled voice of her brother Jamie, yelled back.

She heard the loud flushing of their white toilet, the sound of running water and the bathroom door slamming. He rounded the corner onto the white and blue tile on the kitchen floor.

"Did you wash your hands good," she said more like a mother, than a sister.

"Yeah," he said embarrassed by her natural nurturing.

"Go flip on the news. I'll bring your sandwich." She opened the refrigerator and pulled the roast beef out. She put it on the bread and slathered it with mustard, just the way he liked it.

To tease him she yelled. "Do you want mustard on it?"

"Melanie," he yelled laughing at their old joke. When he'd turned five she started this and used to make him laugh crazily. It still worked on him and her too. She had fun just doing it.

She walked out of the bright kitchen into the immaculate living room. Jamie was lounging on the couch flipping though the channels looking for the news channel.

She placed the plates on the small coffee table in front of the couch. She threw Jamie's legs off the couch so she could sit down.

She went back into the kitchen. "What do you want to drink?"

This time there wasn't a pause. "Coke."

She got two glasses of coke and went back into the living room. She pushed his plate over to him. and grabbed her cotto salami sandwich and took a giant bit out of it.

"Turfn nit fup." She said to him.

"What?"

She swallowed almost choking herself. "Turn it up."

He got up from the couch and bowed to her lowly. "Yes master, it shall be a pleasure." He was trying to make her laugh and it worked. Unfortunately, it was right when she was taking a drink and once again almost choked herself. This resulted in making Jamie laugh.

He turned it up and the stuffy newsman. He was wearing a pressed suit and had his blonde hair parted to the side. Luckily, Jamie turned it up at the beginning of a broadcast.

"Ten banks have been robbed in the last two weeks. It is believed that the same two people have been doing the robbing. The only twist is that each bank has a different height for each. Sometimes one is about six feet while the other is about five. In another situation one is four feet while the other is seven. The only confirmed fact is that they both have black hair but one is a lighter shade with a single white strip. If you have any information the anonymous tip-line is on the bottom of the screen."

The newsman turned to the stunningly pretty co-anchor. "What do you think about that Barbra?"

The pretty woman shook her bright red head. "I don't know what to think about this. Coming up: Child found in dumpster and later, the Seattle Serial Killer was finally caught. Tonight; it could be the deadliest thing on earth and you could be eating for dinner, stay tuned for more information." Their camera zoomed out; giving a wide-shot of the newsroom, then went to commercial.

She stood up grabbing her now empty cup. She hadn't realized that she had been that thirsty.

"Hey, I'm going to get something to drink you want a refill." He handed her his empty glass without a word.

She took it into the kitchen and poured the coke into the glasses. She walked back into the kitchen and poured the drinks she went back into the living room and handed the drink to Jamie.

He took a giant swig without taking his eyes off of the television.

The screen went from commercial to the newsroom.

"For the last two weeks, one name has been on the hearts and minds of everyone. That name is Gavin Schlep. This is the name of the two year old boy that disappeared. He was recently found in a trash dumpster with his hands and feet cut off. It is believed that he was tortured until he died. Our hearts go out to the family."

A picture of a cute boy flashed up. He had on a blue shirt with blue jean shorts. The front of his blond hair was flipped up.

"For the last two months there have been one hundred-seven murders in the Seattle area. It will be a relief to the friends and families to know that the killers have been caught. He broke the record for most serial killings in the country. He was killing people four to five a night. The only motive that he seemed to have was to kill. There was no rhyme or reason to his murders. Thankfully however we finally got this mad-man off of the streets. He has been sentenced to death with no possible chance of getting out of it."

"Ug," Melanie said. "Turn it off."

Jamie grabbed the remote from the table and turned the volume down. He shook his head. "What the hell is going on out there?" Jamie asked disgustedly.

Melanie shrugged. "Watch your language." She said half-heartedly.

"You taught me to talk like that." He said exasperatedly.

She changed the subject of his language habits. "I don't know what's going on out there but whatever it is, it's not for the best of the world. Their killing each other like crazy."

"The world is literally tearing itself apart at the seams. Murder, suicides, kidnapping, and torture." He looked despaired. He was a nine year old child obsessing over the news. When she was a child she worried that one of her friends wouldn't be able to play with her.

"You've got to stop worrying about things like this. You're going to get wrinkles and premature gray."

He shook his head. "Well, what am I supposed to do? The world is going crazy and I guess that it's taking everyone down with it."

I smiled at his pathetic joke. "I see what you mean. The human race has become nothing but a big mess. It's like evilness is born in with us."

Apparently, Jamie didn't want to talk anymore about it because he tried to subtly change the subject. "When do you think that mom and dad are going to be home?"

"They haven't gone on a date in the last two years. Let them have their fun."

He shook his head in agreement. "I've been telling them that they need to get out of this house for months. I hope that their having a good time."

"If mom did half the things she wanted to, trust me, they've had a good time."

He laughed at her small innuendo at their love lives. "Let's just hope that we don't have another brother."

She hit him. "Honestly, I have no clue where you learn this stuff."

"From you."

"If anyone asks, I don't have a clue where you learned all of this stuff." She said laughing. She loved the carefree and open relationship that she had with her brother.

"Turn the television back up." She said to him. He grabbed the remote off of the table and turned it back up.

"The bodies of ten dead cats were found in various ditches. They appear to have been tortured."

Immediately, when they said that, he grabbed the remote and turned off the television. Jamie was the biggest cat-lover on this earth, and hated people who tried to hurt a poor defenseless animal.

To take his mind off of the animals she suggested something that he loved to do. "How about we play some video games?"

"Sure." He said in his sad voice. She looked at him but his head was turned away. She heard him sniff and realized that he was crying. She'd never really thought that he loved animals that much.

"What do you want to play?" she asked hurriedly hoping that it would take his mind of these things.

This time when he spoke his voice was back to normal. "Grand Turismo? It's been forever since we played."

She got up off of the couch and went to a small cabinet under the television and pulled the game out and put it in the station. She grabbed the controllers and walked back.

They went through the start up process and got to the menu. They chose their cars and their favorite track. It was in San Francisco and was really steep.

They sat and played the game for a long time. The sun slowly sank out of the sky and turned the ground black.

She looked at the clock with a start. It was nearly eleven o'clock and hour after the time that she was supposed to put Jamie to bed.

She paused the game. "Come on, Jamie. Time to put you in bed."

He groaned and closed his mouth trying to stop from yawning but failed. They walked to his room. He walked through and flicked the light on. She helped him unfold the covers on his bed.

He stripped down to his underwear and pulled on his pajamas. She gave him a hug and picked up his clothes. When she went out of his room she turned off his light and pulled the door closed.

She threw them in the dirty cloths hamper and went to her own bedroom. She pulled out the journal that she kept in her drawer.

June 24, 2005

Things on this earth are starting to get worse. Everything is changing. The people on the earth are starting to get more ferocious. It's almost as if the people are being born with it. I don't know what on earth we as a people are going to do but we can't possibly do anything worse than we already are. I can only hope that things start to get better.

She pushed her journal back into her drawer and flicked off her lights but she didn't go to sleep.

She sat there listening for the sound of her parent's car and the door opening. She soon drifted into a restless sleep. That night she dreamt of the things that had been happening on the news.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

"Beep, beep, beep," went the sound of the alarm clock. Melanie groaned and flipped over to turn it off. She blindly pressed buttons on the clock until it stopped the annoying sound.

She rolled back over and was almost back to sleep when the irresistible smell of bacon wafted though her open door.

She got up and looked at herself in her mirror. Her hair was a total mess and here clothes were completely a wreck. She walked over to the giant dresser and mirror.

She picked up a comb and tried to pull it though her messy rats-nest of a hairdo.

Finally, she gave up. It was pointless to try before she showered. She walked into the bathroom that joined her room. She slipped off her clothes that she slept in and stepped into the shower.

The hot water poured over her shoulders relaxing her muscles that she hadn't realized were tense. In the steam she remembered her dreams. The vividness of them startled her.

She ran her hair quickly under the stream, washing it as quickly as possible. She turned off of the water the almost scalding water and stepped out of the shower. She wrapped the towel around her and walked into her seemingly frigid room. She shut her bedroom door and went to the dresser.

She rifled though her drawer until she found her favorite cotton long sleeve shirt. She pulled on a pair of faded jogging pants. She picked up the comb and ran it through her long, wet hair. She pushed it back into a small pony-tail.

She walked out of her room and into Jamie's. She always had to wake him up. He had a hard time getting to sleep but once he was there wasn't an alarm clock on this earth that could wake him up.

She walked through his door and as usual he was wrapped up in his thick, green blanket. She pulled him out of the entanglement and tried to shake him awake.

Unlike usual he awoke immediately. He sat up and the back of his black hair was sticking straight up.

"S'at food, I smell." He mumbled unintelligently, without opening his chocolate brown eyes.

"Yeah, come and get some of it before the bacon gets frozen." I bade him.

That was all he needed. He quickly got out of the bed and ran out of the room. The boy was like a bottomless pit that constantly sucked food in. Sometimes she wondered how he managed to stay skinny with all the food that he ate.

She grabbed a shirt from his drawer and walked out of his room, shutting the door behind her.

She walked through the hallway and went into the kitchen. She threw the shirt at him. "Put this on."

He pulled the shirt over his head and went to the cabinet. He grabbed five plates from up there.

He put one of the plates next to the stove so their mom could shovel out the bacon on it.

He set the other plates on the bar that divided the kitchen and the dining room. He grabbed one and walked over the drawer and pulled his favorite fork out of it.

He grabbed the fresh bacon off of the plate that he'd just sat on the counter. He walked over to their wooden table and sat down digging into his food almost immediately.

The rest of them got their food and joined Jamie at the table. They sat eating their food in silence.

Trev Snyder was the first to break the sound. "I got some phone calls today."

"What is it honey?" Linda Stryder asked

"The first was from my brother. He's coming over tomorrow. He says that something has started to change in the upper regions of America and he needs to talk to us."

A chorus of groans went across the table. "Which one?" Linda said in a strained voice. Her teeth were clinched tightly. "Guy or Jeb."

"Jeb."

A fresh roll of groans ran across the table. Jeb was crazy just like the rest of the Stryder family. Trev called them "The Crazies," whenever he would talk about them.

"You mother also called. She wants us to come but I can't make it because of Jeb."

"Well, I have no problem going to her if it means that I can avoid you brother."

Trev kept his mouth shut. He hated that Linda didn't like his brothers but he wasn't The Crazies fan. Somehow he'd only gotten a small touch of the Stryder madness.

"Linda," Trev started. "I swear this time, if it's another one of his conspiracy theory's I promise that I will throw him out and never look back."

Linda got a smile on her face and everyone around the table knew why she was smiling like a person who'd just won the lottery. There was almost a one hundred percent chance that it was just another theory.

They at the rest of their breakfast in total silence, the whole time, with Linda smiling.

After all of the bacon disappeared, Linda, still smiling, gathered up the plates and went into the kitchen.

Jamie, in whisper, talked to his dad. "Why do you think Uncle Jeb is coming around?"

Trev just shook his head. "Your guess is as good as mine, partner." His voice lowered farther. "I think that it is just a little theory of his."

"I know it is." Linda said.

Trev turned around. "How do you do that?"

"You've been married to me for nineteen years and you still don't know how." She walked back into the kitchen.

"That women has the hearing of a vulture." He mumbled under his breath.

"I prefer being compared to a cheetah." She yelled back at him.

He rolled his eyes. "Hey, Jamie, how 'bout we go play some basketball."

The nine year old boy smiled widely. Basketball was his, and mine, favorite sport.

"Do you want to play with us, Mel?" Jamie asked hopefully.

"Ug," she said carefully. "I actually am going for a jog."

"okay." He replied to me.

"Are sure." Trev asked.

She nodded her head for yes.

The three family members rose from the table and walked through the living room. They all exited out of the front of the window.

She walked farther and heard the sound of the garage door opening. She hit the sidewalk and started running. It was her favorite thing to do.

She felt the wind on her face. The hot Tucson sun beat down on her face and in no time, she was sweating.

She kept looking up at the sky, using it to lead her way. Then something in the corner of her sight made her look at the eastern part of the sky.

The fifteen year old girl looked to that part of the sky. In it was a circular disk, hovering in the sky. It reminded her of the thing in the movie, _Independence Day_.

She focused all of her attention to the disk and tripped on a crack in the street. She hit her head hard on the sidewalk. Instantly, pain spread throughout her body. She felt the hot, sticky, substance cover the top of her forehead.

She touched it and pulled back a red hand. She picked herself up from the ground and started to run back to her house. She sent up a silent prayer for adrenaline.

In minutes she was back at her house. In the driveway her dad and brother were still playing. The ball thumped to the ground when they noticed her. They ran over to her quickly when they saw the blood.

"What happened?" Trev said immediately.

"I saw something in the sky and then I tripped." She explained to them. She decided against telling them that she saw a space ship. No need for them to think that she had a touch of the Stryder crazy.

He ushered her into the house and into the nearest bathroom. Trev grabbed four paper towels from a rack and turned on a faucet to dip them in cold water.

"You don't need to do this dad. I can handle it myself."

He gave her an antagonized look. "Mel, I'm your father. It's my job to do things like this."

Actually she was glad that he was doing that for her. She needed the time to think about what she'd just saw.

It had been circular and metallic. It was made of some kind of metal and shone in the bright sunlight.

"_What could it have been?" _She thought to herself. "What could it have been?"

"What's that Mel?" Trev said.

She hadn't realized that she had talked out loud. "Nothing." She said hurriedly. "Are you done yet?"

"Just about. When I'm done I don't want you to got to sleep. You might have a concussion. Take some Tylenol."

He got in the medicine above the sing and pulled out the white bottle. He pulled out the pill and handed it to here.

She walked out of the bathroom and into the kitchen. She pulled a glass out of the cabinet and half-filled it with water. She popped the white pill in her mouth and took a drink of the water, pouring the rest out.

She went out of the kitchen, looking for Jamie. He wasn't in the living room. "Have you seen Jamie." She asked her mother.

She nodded her head yes. "He went to his room."

She left the living room and went into the hallway that led to their bedrooms. They slept on the main floor, while they're parents slept above them.

She walked in his room without knocking. He was lying on his bed, doing something that he rarely did, read. She recognized the book as the first Harry Potter book.

"I need to talk to you Jamie."

His head shot up. "I didn't know you were their. You just about gave me a heart attack."

"I need to talk to you." She said again. She turned around and shut the wooden door. She went to the edge of his bed and sat down. Jamie scooted closer to here. "I saw something in the sky."

He looked at her solemnly. "Yes, their called airplanes and were invented by The Wright Brothers."

She rolled her eyes. "No, not an airplane. I think that it was a spaceship."

He laughed at her. "A spaceship. Really. So was it the little green men that made you fall."

"I'm serious."

He looked worried. "Don't tell me that you've been touched by." His voice got deep and scary. "The Stryder Madness."

She was starting to get pissed at him. "Jamie, I'm serious. What if Jeb and Maggie are right? What if life is just a conspiracy theory? What if there are aliens and other planets?"

"Melanie, don't be crazy. Uncle Jeb and Aunt Maggie are crazy. There are no aliens. That's just crazy Uncle Jeb and Aunt Maggie talking."

She gave him a half-hearted smile. "I guess that your right. It's just the headache and Tylenol talking."

"Good, you were starting to scare me for a minute."

"I'm going to watch television."

"Okay, just remember. You have the strength to overcome the Stryder Madness."

She laughed. "Shut up."

She walked into the living room and sat down on the couch next to her mom. She had Dr. Phil turned on.

I listened to it for a few seconds when a special news bulletin popped up. The stuffy newsman with the red headed assistant popped up.

"The world is in a total uproar at what's been happening. Today over seven thousand people turned up at seventeen consecutive drug rehab centers. Homeless, addicts, and many other unknown people turned up to be cured of their addictions. It is an absolute miracle to the world."

He paused for a second. "This just in. It is now confirmed that ten thousand people have turned up at the centers. This is truly a miracle. Now back to your show."

Dr. Phil came back on in the middle of the show. "What do you think about that Mel." Linda asked her.

"It's amazing."

Somewhere in the middle of the desert, Jebediah was watching the same news report.

"The invasion has started." He grabbed the keys from the cabin wall. He ran at a surprising rate for a man of his age. He jumped into the jeep that he always drove and started driving.

He laid his foot to the floor not looking back. His brother Guy was dead and Maggie would have already figured it out. He had to tell Trev. He was the only brother he had and he wouldn't leave them to have their bodies taken over by these creatures befouling the earth.

His eyes inched down to the speedometer. It was over one hundred. He pressed his foot down.

He already had a plan. If his idiot brother wouldn't listen to him he would try on his niece and nephew. He was determined to save them even if he couldn't save Linda and Trev.

He pressed on the pedal harder. Since he was in the middle of the desert he didn't have to worry about any police.

He just hoped that he could make it in time to save them. Their was no way in hell that he would let his family become an alien.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

The next day Melanie woke without any provocation from her beeping alarm clock. She lay in her bed waiting for the sun to come up and the day began. She felt strange. She knew that from the way the bed looked that she had tossed and turned all night.

Of course, she did have a good reason for all the tossing and turning. Her dreams were tainted by flying spaceships and tall misshapen humanoids. She kept imagining that they were abducting her Jamie and taking him away from her forever.

She shuddered at the thought of that. Jamie was one of the most important humans in her live. She hated to think of anything bad happening to that sweet little boy.

Melanie eyes squinted as the sun slowly began to creep into her room. Today there was no smell of bacon.

She was shocked when the sound of her alarm clock started going off. She had forgotten to disarm it. She reached over and flipped the button that would turn it off.

She got out of bed, not remembering how she got in there in the first place. She had on her pajama pants and shirt.

She looked at herself in the mirror and was surprised to find out that her hair was lying perfectly in place.

She got out of the bed, folding all of the sheets into hospital corners. She walked out of the room into the living room. Her father Trev was sitting there but Jamie was probably still in bed.

"Hey," he said sleepily with a smile on his face.

She yawned and blinked. "Hey, woke up early too."

He sighed. "I'm waiting for Jeb to get here. I swear I'm going to throw him out of this house and never think about him again."

"Dad, he's your brother. You can't stop loving him."

"I never said that I'd stop loving him. There is nothing he can do or say that will ever make me stop loving him. I just said that he won't be back in my house. I love Jeb I just can't understand his reasoning."

Melanie looked at the clock hanging above the television it was five in the morning, her mom should already be up.

"Where's mom." She asked.

"Oh, she left at four so she could get to her mothers house before nighttime."

"Oh," she said softly. She picked up the television remote and flipped on the television. It was on the news channel that it was on last night.

"Today the most miraculous things have happened. Over fifty thousand people have turned themselves in for crimes they committed or to have drug rehab. This is truly a great day for America"

They news continued on this way. It was full of inspirational stories and changes in nature. At seven Jamie walked into the living room to join them.

They continued to watch the new until there was a knock on the door. A frazzled looking Uncle Jeb walked through the door without waiting for someone to open in.

"Come on in, Jeb." Their dad said sarcastically.

Basically, Jeb looked terrible. His semi-white hair was sticking up in place and there were black bruise-like places under his eyes. His clothes were wrinkled and had holes in them. There were grease stains all over them and looked like they haven't been changed in weeks. He didn't wait for anybody to invoke the conversation.

"Trev, you are my brother and I care for you. So I'm begging that you listen to me. Don't trust anybody. I want you to come with me to the safe house."

Trev laughed. "Honestly."

Jeb's eyes flashed with a hint of red in them. "There is something wrong with the world. Don't trust anybody."

"Okay I just got done watching the news and so far all I can see is that the world is going great."  
"Oh Trev surely you aren't as dumb as you are acting right now. The world is changing at a breakneck pace. Mayberry wasn't as nice as things are getting."

Trev just laughed. Jeb grabbed a photo album from the table. He searched around his pocket until he found a pencil. He started to practically carve into the back of it.

"I should have gone with Linda to her mothers. Then at least I wouldn't have to talk to you."

"Lind's mama asked you all to come up for a visit, right? Kind of strange, out of the blue? Got a little upset when only Linda would come? Tell the truth, Trey, I don't think Linda will be minding anything much when she gets back. Oh, she might act like it, but you'll be able to tell the difference."

"Get out of my house, Jeb." Trev ordered.

"Don't trust anybody."

"Out, Jeb."

He walked over to Melanie and pulled her close. "Don't le 'em get you honey," he whispered. "Follow the lines. Start at the beginning and follow the lines. Uncle Jeb'll keep a safe place for you."  
Trev ran over. "Damn it Jeb, out of my house," he said through tightly clenched teeth. He grabbed him by the shoulders and pulled him over to the door.

"I've warned you. Don't trust anybody." The door slammed in Jeb's face.

Trev made an indiscernible noise. "That man? How can he come into my house, deface my picture frame, and claim that the world is being taken over? How can we be related? How am I the only normal one in the family? I swear sometimes I think that I'm adopted. "

Melanie and Jamie didn't say a word while he was ranting. Jamie looked worried but Melanie looked confused. The things that Jeb had said were true. The town had surpassed that of Mayberry. It was way too nice.

Their phone began to ring. Trev went and answered it. Melanie took advantage of the moment alone with Jamie. "What do you think, Jamie?"

He shook his head. "I don't know what to think. I don't think that he's lying, but he's telling what he thinks the truth is."

"What if it's true?" He looked, highly disbelievingly at her. "Just think about it. I see a spaceship in the sky and suddenly the world changes and everybody starts acting weird and then Uncle Jeb comes and confirms my suspicious."

He sat, speechless, realizing the precedence in what she was saying. "I don't know but can you really believe that there are aliens and other planets out in the universe. It just crazy to…"

Jamie stopped in the middle of the sentence. Trev walked into the living room from the kitchen. "That was your mother, she sounded really strange over the phone. She ran into some car trouble when she got to her mothers house. I've got to go help her fix the car. Melanie, I want you to take care of Jamie while I'm getting your mother and the car. We'll be back before tomorrow evening. I've already called Mrs. Whittleson, she'll check over here every-so-often."

He grabbed a hat off of the hat rack next to the door and walked out. "Well, uh," Jamie said after their father had walked out of the front door. "That was weird."

"He was lying." She stated simply.

"What."

"Yeah. He has this little quirk when he lies he'll always put on a hat. He was defiantly lying about something."

"What do you think he was lying about?"

She shrugged her shoulders. "I think the reason that he went up there. I don't think that mom's car had anything to do with it."

Jebediah sat furious in the desert, camouflage colored jeep three blocks away. How dare his brother treat him like that? Throw him out when he could prove what he was saying was true.

He just hope that some of his message went into his niece and nephew. He rarely ever saw them but loved them more than words can describe. Now he could only hope that they believed him.

His brother's car passed by him. _'Where is he going?'_ Jeb thought to himself. He started the jeep and went off into the opposite direction to the caves. "I tried and I failed." He took out a cell phone from his jacket pocket.

He dialed a number and held it to his ear.

"Maggie speaking."

"The invasion has started." He closed the phone, looked straight ahead, and started driving.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Later, Melanie sat on the couch with Jamie's head on her lap. They weren't watching television, they were just talking. They were very careful not to speak about Uncle Jeb.

Finally, Jamie decided to break the rules about not speaking about Jeb. "I'm afraid Mel."

"Why?" she said instantly worried about him.

"Because of what Jeb said. He didn't say one thing that didn't seem to make sense. Just think about, how does the world go from savage and vicious to a utopia?"

Jamie got up from her lap and arched his back. "I don't know. I wish that I had the answer to that question."

"Well I don't know. How 'bout we go play some b-ball."

She nodded her head and got up from the couch. Her bones popped as she moved for the first time in hours. She headed out of the door, following Jamie.

They stayed out there playing basketball until the sun began setting. The came back into the house and sweat was dripping down their beet-red faces. Melanie pushed her wet hair out of her eyes.

She flopped down on the couch and Jamie sat down next to her. They were breathing rapidly and their sides were hurting. "I'm going to take a shower." Jamie said breathlessly.

He got up from the couch and went into his bathroom. She got up and went into the kitchen. She grabbed a chicken that was sitting in a metal pan with a note on it that said, 'This is your to eat'. She opened the oven and turned it on. She put it in there and left the kitchen.

She went to couch and sat down gently. She sat there until the turkey began to smell good. She got up and went into the kitchen to check on it. It wasn't done.

She went back into the living room but was barely on the couch before the phone began ringing.

She got back up an answered it. "Hello, Stryder Residence, Melanie."

"Melanie." It was her mother but her voice sounded weird. "We'll be home tomorrow."

She hesitated but said, "Okay, about what time." Each word was said with extra and slow emphasis on the syllables.

"Oh, when we get there."

At that sentence Melanie knew something was up. Her parents were the most punctual people on earth when they left them at home and they were far away. If they were late they made sure that they called every ten minutes to assure us that they were still on their way.

"Okay," Melanie wasn't sure why but she was reminded of something that Jeb had said. He had predicted that she would be acting strange when she got back. So she decided to test her mother.

"I love you, Linda."

"I love you too, Melanie."

She hung up the phone immediately after her mom said that. That's when she knew Jeb wasn't some old fool.

Jamie walked into the kitchen with nothing on but a white towel wrapped loosely around his waist. "I heard the phone ring. Was it mom?"

"Jamie, do you know where Jeb's phone number is?"

He thought for a few seconds. "I don't think that we have it."

"Are you sure?"

He nodded his head and latched onto the towel that was slipping from his waist.

"Shit."

"What's wrong, Mel?"

"Mom called and she was different. When I called her Linda, she didn't even protest. I think that Jeb is telling the truth about the aliens."

"I think you're right. But were just kids. What can we do?"

"A hell of a lot. We can't be here when they return."

"You're expecting me to leave everything I know so that I can go on the lam to protect myself from aliens." He let the grip on his towel fail and I slipped down father. He quickly regained it before it fell off completely.

"Go pack your clothes."

He didn't know why but he was sure that she was right. He didn't hear what had happened on the phone but there was one thing that his mother hated her children to do. They could commit a murder and they would only get in trouble if they called her by her first name.

"He got to his room and let his towel drop completely, not bothering to shut the door. He grabbed some comfortable sports shorts and pulled them on without underwear. He pulled his biggest shirt. He put on his shoes and was out in the living room almost instantly.

Melanie had two duffel bags and was filling them with all of the canned food they had.

Before leaving the house that they had known for their whole lives, Jamie ran back in and came out with a picture of their whole family, taken only about a month ago.

He inadvertently felt a tear sliding down his face. He looked over and saw that the same tear was falling down her face too.

They lived right in the middle of the desert in a small suburb. They didn't have to go far to find their old hiding place.

From behind a small hill they could see the whole neighborhood. When they were even younger they would go there and play for hours.

They stayed there for a couple of hours looking at the house waiting for them to come back. Finally, they didn't have to wait any longer.

They pulled into the driveway and got out of the car. They looked perfectly normal but the moved stiffly, robot-like. Like they weren't use to moving just yet.

Melanie felt another tear fall down her face as she saw her parents that weren't really her parents. The word that kept running through her head was,_ 'Imposters_.'

What right did those damn aliens have to inhabit the bodies of her parents, or any for that matter?

"I will take them down." She vowed.

She turned back to the hill and Jamie was lying on the hot sand, his face red. He looked to her. "We can't stay here, can we?"

She shook her head no. "We've got to get out of here."

They stayed the rest of the day there, spending ever moment they could in the shadows. That night the grabbed their duffel bags of food and set off into the night.

Melanie had taken a couple of survival courses and knew how to survive in the wilderness. The night was the best time to travel when you were in the desert.

While walking she taught Jamie everything that she knew about rationing. They each got one bottle of water and he refused to drink until she did. Then he would try to give her extra of his.

The walked, at her estimation, for about two miles before they could no longer stand to move. They downed the rest of water and fell asleep on the cool desert sand.

The continued this pattern until they found a small natural cave, so far in the wilderness that there was no chance that anything could find them.

They built a small fire and cooked a can of the food. Sharing it half and half.

"This is what we're reduced to? Living like Anne Frank in a desert instead of a secret annex." She said to no one in particular. There had to be something else for them to do. Then she remembered. Jeb's house. She walked out of the cabin

She had no clue where Jeb's house was, but wherever it was it was guaranteed to have some kind of protection. She stood staring up at the stars in the clouds.

They knew that it was far out of society and there was no way that they would ever be found out. But then a thought came to her. They couldn't look for the house.

They needed food and living in the middle of a desert with no houses near. Then she realized that they would have to have food soon.

Leaving on that thought she went back into the cave and sat on a rounded rock that had took the both of them to push in.

They spent the three weeks of their lives living like that. Two cans of food per day and a bottle of water. She watched the already skinny boy drop weight so fast it wasn't even right but he never complained.

His hair was long enough now that he constantly pushed it back out of his eyes. Then one night there was only seven cans of food left. That's when she proposed the big idea.

"Jamie, we need to go on a raid. Were low on food."

"I've been thinking the exact same thing. We've only got seven cans of food left. When are we leaving?"

She looked at him with a raised eyebrow. "No. I'm going, your staying here."

He looked at her incredulously. "There is no way in heaven or hell that I'm going to let you go alone. Were in this together and well die together if that's what it takes."

She pulled him into a hug. "I love you."

"And I'm going."

She gave up on the fight. This wasn't one that she could win.


	5. Chapter 5

**Please review the story. If you like the story, tell me about it. If you see a mistake, tell me about it. Overall just review the story.**

**THANKS SO MUCH FOR THE PEOPLE THAT HAVE REVIEWED.**

Chapter 5

The next day the two of them began making the preparations for there journey.

They had two duffle bags and they planned to fill both of them with as much canned food as they could carry.

"How will we find our way back here?" Jamie asked his sister, Melanie, breaking the silence that the desert cast over them.

She thought for a few second then realized that she couldn't answer him. There was no possible way the two of them find there way back to the cave that they were beginning to call home.

"I don' know if we can find our way back. We might have to and a new place to say out in the desert.

"We can't do that. We have to find our way back here. If we don't we'll keep moving and we won't have a place to stay. We can't keep moving all of the time."

"But Jamie, we can't steal food from the same house over an over. The aliens will be sure to catch us if we do that. It just isn't practical for us to be doing things like that.

Jamie didn't want to be a part of the conversation anymore. He realized that Melanie was telling the truth. He stepped out of the cave.

Most of the time the two of them avoided going outside. The sun from the sky was extremely hot and even though they had only spent a little time out there, their skin had already taken a darker tone.

He looked up at the sky, coming dangerously close to putting his eye on the blazing sun. He felt fear flutter in his stomach. He was really scared about going to steal the food. He was afraid that they would be caught but most of all he was afraid of being separated from his sister. He loved her more than anything in the whole world and he didn't think that he could possibly ever stand losing her.

He looked down at himself in the bright light and realized that he was really dirty. The shirt that he had on was holey from sleeping on the ground and snagging on the rocks that lined the inside of the above-ground cave.

He couldn't see his face but he was sure that it didn't look any better than Melanie's. Hers was covered in dirt from sleeping on the ground.

For the first time he thought what would really happen if the two of them were caught. There was no doubt that the aliens were real. When they had spent two days staying at their hiding place they had observed their parents. If they had been their real parents, the cops would have already been called and searches would have been conducted everywhere within fifty miles.

A tear came to his eye as it always did when he thought of his parents. He had loved them and now he had lost them.

Now the anger came. As always his temperature ran high when he thought about what the aliens were doing with their parents. They had no right to do that to humans.

"Jamie, come back in here." Jamie gave a slight jolt as his thoughts were come to a quick halt. He lumbered back into the cave.

"We're leaving." She stated to him simply. Her face was grave and set in stone. Jamie knew that by going he would be hurting his sister.

"I'm staying." He said.

Instantly, her eyes brightened. She tried to hide it but failed. "But, I thought that you didn't want me to be alone."

"I didn't want you to be alone. And I know that if I go with you it will hurt you more than me staying here along will hurt me."

She ran over to him and hugged him. "Thank you." She said with tears in her eyes. Jamie knew that he had saved his sister a lot of hurt and pain. He gave her the bag from behind him when she let him out of her embrace.

When the sun began lowering in the sky she set out into the vast desert. Before she left she gave Jamie a hug and told him that she loved him.

Walking by the desert by night was freezing. She spent her night's cold as the winter time approached. She made good time as she crossed the desert. In less than three nights she had reached a suburb. She had no clue where she was or who lived in the small community.

She spent a few nights on the outskirts of town watching the houses, making mental notes about the times that the people around wouldn't be home.

After the third night, she decided to make her move. She made her way into the small house she had chosen.

The person that lived at the house spent their time away at a job, she assumed. She slowly made her way to the back of the door praying that it was unlocked.

She constantly looked around her to make sure that she wasn't being followed. She reached for the door when she got there. It refused to move. She almost sank down to the ground, crying.

She got up. She searched around the ground for a rock big enough to break some glass. She found the rock and threw it at the sliding doors, sincerely hoping that they didn't have an alarm system.

The rock went through the glass shattering it instantly. She waited, heart pounding in her throat, for the sound of a blaring alarm. It didn't come and her heart slowed.

She stepped thought the shattered of the sliding door into the house. She ran immediately though the unfamiliar house looking for the bedroom.

She found it quickly and pulled open the closet. She found some blankets and put them on the bottom of the duffle bag, for her and Jamie to sleep under on the freezing cold desert at night time.

Next, she ran into the kitchen. She was so tempted to grab the food now and eat as much of it as she could but she remembered that she had to bring the food back to Jamie.

She ran to the counters pushing as many bottles of water in there as she could. She opened the cabinets and pushed the food into one of her bags.

She was almost done when she heard a key jiggling in the door. She stopped immediately her heart pounding again. She rushed into the bedroom hoping that whoever was didn't have to go into the their room.

She looked around looking for someplace to hide. Finally, with her shoulder killing her from the weight of her bags, she settled on the closet. The lights flicked on in the room.

She heard a drawer opening and closing again and a hall light coming on. Her heart pounded madly, threatening to give her position away. The person walked into the bedroom that she was in.

She saw the shadow of the person that lived there pass across the bottom. She silently opened the bag with cans in it and pulled a can out.

The individual that lived there layed a hand on the door and turn the handle to the closet. She raised the can in the air and the door opened.


	6. Chapter 6

**Please review the story. If you like the story, tell me about it. If you see a mistake, tell me about it. If you see something that can be changed, tell me about it. Overall just review the story.**

**THANKS SO MUCH FOR THE PEOPLE THAT HAVE REVIEWED.**

Chapter Six

She brought the can down fast and hard, but she felt something hitting her hand, knocking her hand into the side of the other closet door.

"What the hell are you doing?" said an extremely familiar voice.

"Jamie?" She looked at the small outline of a shadow standing in shortly on front of her. She pulled the white string hanging from the ceiling and a light flared from overhead.

Standing over her was the grimy face of her little brother. His hair was hanging low in his eyes.

"Jamie, what the hell do you think your doing? You almost gave me a heart attack. Do you know how close you were to having your head bashed in by a can?"

"I'm sorry Mel, but I couldn't stand staying away from you. I love you and I just couldn't stand now knowing what was happening to you."

She couldn't stay mad at the little guy, despite her rapidly beating heart. He pretended to be strong, but really he was just a nine year old boy.

"Come with me." She told him. She put the can of food back in the bag and grabbed both of them. Jamie took one from her hand, almost buckling under the weight of the one that she guessed had the water in it.

She pulled him thought the house, turning off all the lights that he had, pointlessly, turned on.

She finally reached the room that she'd been looking for. In the kitchen she pulled out every drawer in there till she found the scissors. She turned around to face Jamie and said, "Take off your shirt."

He pulled his holey shirt off and threw it onto the counter. She grabbed a wooden chair from their table and instructed him to set down. He did so, and she took the scissors to his head.

She cut his hair ridiculously short and then turned the scissors to her own head. She cut the bangs short and attacked to back of her head.

She threw the scissors into the unclosed drawer and went back into the room. She pulled out five shirts, stuffed them in the bag, and left the room.

"We are leaving." She said to Jamie abruptly as he was pulling on his shirt. She flung the back door open and started running. She heard the food steps of Jamie behind. The two didn't stop until the small community was almost invisible.

"Jamie, what did you think when you going to that house? Wait a minute, how did you find the house?"

"I've been following, you one your way there. You're really inattentive with matters like that. I also made a path that we can follow back to the cave."

"What?" she practically yelled at him. "You made a path. Do you know how much danger we're in? They could follow the path."

Despite her yelling at him there was still a smug smile on his face. "I'm not stupid. It's a path of natural elements. The rocks will lead the way back to the cave."

She looked skeptical but followed him. For hours the trekked and they made it back to the cave, much faster than she had made it to the house.

"Why did it take us so long to get there?"

"Because this is our new house. This is closer to the population and we will be able to get in and out of town faster."

She didn't like the idea of being closer to the alien population than she had to be but there was nothing that could be done. "Our new home." She agreed.


End file.
